CAIRO, 28 January (IPS) - Within recent months, several Israeli and US officials have stressed Israel’s unique character as a “Jewish state.” But according to many Arab observers, the designation negates the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel, and leaves the door open to expulsion of Israel’s Arab citizens.

Reviewing the speech, Ha’aretz Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner concluded that Obama “sounded as strong as Clinton, as supportive as Bush, as friendly as Giuliani. At least rhetorically, Obama passed any test anyone might have wanted him to pass. So, he is pro-Israel. Period.”

Israel is “our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy,” Obama said, assuring his audience that “we must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance and continuing work on the Arrow and related missile defense programs.” (PS - Note the second pic!)

One of the many paradoxes of contemporary American politics involves the Democratic Party’s two most loyal constituency groups: African Americans and Jews. They have managed to stay under the same political tent even as their historic relationship has continued the long descent from the heights reached when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched side-by-side in Selma, Ala.

Compounding this odd situation, the Senator seems to want to be a “hawk” when it comes to Iran, describing that country as a threat to Israel and the USA. Here again I remain perplexed. Iran does not have the military capability to hit the USA. There is absolutely no proof of Iran advancing military nuclear ambitions. It is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Everything else is speculation. Israel, on the other hand, has not signed the treaty; possesses nuclear weapons but will not acknowledge that fact…..

WASHINGTON, December 12 (IPS) - US Jews appear to have become more opposed both to Israel’s making key concessions in renewed peace talks with Palestinians and to the US carrying out a military attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to the latest in an annual series of surveys of Jewish opinion released here this week by the American Jewish Committee (AJC)........

Moreover, a growing majority of Jews identify themselves as Democrats—58 percent compared to 54 percent in October 2006—while only 15 percent said they considered themselves Republicans, the same percentage as 14 months ago, on the eve of the Democratic sweep of the mid-term elections.

Fifty-three percent said they had a favorable opinion of Sen. Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner in the 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nomination, compared to 38 percent of respondents who said they held positive views of the two other leading contenders, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards…..

“There is a growing realization that the more hawkish elements of the pro-Israel community—I’m picking my words because it’s a minefield—have too much of an influence within that community,” says Ori Nir of Americans for Peace Now….

As the American Israel Public Affairs Committee holds its annual policy conference this month, it can point with satisfaction to one of the closest relationships ever between the U.S. administration and the government of Israel.

This year has also seen the most perplexing development in the powerful pro-Israel lobby’s history: an FBI investigation into allegations that a Pentagon analyst passed classified information to Israel via AIPAC officials.

The closer Israel and Washington have grown on policy issues, the more vociferous the charges of Israel’s critics that the Jewish state and its American Jewish supporters exercise too much influence over U.S. decision-making.

WASHINGTON - Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin was formally charged Wednesday with passing classified military information about Iraq to two individuals, believed to be former officials of the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC….....

WASHINGTON - More than a week after a Pentagon official was charged with passing secret information to two employees of Washington’s pro-Israel lobby, Jewish communal leaders are still puzzled about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe into the scandal….....

WASHINGTON - Naor Gilon, the head of the political department at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, whose name has been linked to the Pentagon analyst charged with passing classified information to unauthorized personnel, will leave his post during the summer….....

AIPAC officials would like to see the event as an unreserved show of support for the lobby and an indication that the crisis over the organization is now over. To this end, AIPAC had to institute its own kind of “disengagement plan” this week…..... By the time Rice steps onto the podium, they hope, AIPAC will have distanced itself from the affair….......

The two senior officials directly concerned with the Franklin affair - Rosen and Weissman - will have to pay the price by facing legal charges, possibly even indictments, analysts in Washington said yesterday, while the organization will emerge almost unscathed. But the price will be a heavy one. Rosen is not merely another AIPAC official; in the eyes of many, he is AIPAC itself….......

Rosen pushed not only for lobbying with Congressmen but also directly with the executive branch. His executive lobbying proved a success and Rosen was seen coming and going at the White House, State Department and Pentagon, advocating Israel’s case….......

The AIPAC-Franklin affair has now reached a decisive point. As an organization, AIPAC hopes it has cut out the cancer and can now recover and rebuild its connections…....... For the federal prosecutor, Attorney Paul McNulty, the time is approaching when the veil of secrecy over the affair must be lifted and its full scope made public….......

Was this a case of an Israeli mole in the Pentagon, a lobby that overstepped its authority, or a one-time act in which the lobby’s officials transferred forbidden information to Israeli representatives….....

Americans! Please Forget your INDIVIDUALISM for now, for the sake of HUMANITY coz your inability to think collectively has given IZREAL or JIZHELL to get you to fight for them like crazy and hence help their ANTIHUMAN agenda to go go go! so QUIT thinking INDIVIDUALIST and help humanity to get things done before too too many of HUMANS are killed for your follies.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE talk to people around you and get this thing going in some sensible direction, stop SUPPORTING ZIONISTIC WARS and START SUPPORTING HUMANITY!
DO NOT SUPPORT HILLARY EVER! BUT BE CAREFUL THAT THE ONE YOU VOTE FOR IS NOT ZIONISTIC UNDERCOVER AGENT.
ZIONISM MEANS WORST POSSIBLE KIND OF RASISM!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TRY TO FREE AMERICA OF THE ZIONISTIC CLUTCHES AND HENCE help the normal people of the WORLD LIVE!
I DO NOT know if OBAMA IS NON ZIONISTIC but you people should do your homework and VOTE AND ELECT a non ZIOISTIC Person. KICK anyone that Lieberman supports, remember LIEBERMAN starts with LIE! and litsen to the speeches of Ray McGovern & Scott Ritter and reccomend those to others to litsen too. you can find then on google in the video section.
Please Please Please stop this war madness, Stop the bloody Genocides, Natives been obliterated, the Red people been obliterated and many other been destroyed too NOW its tiem to let PEACE AND LOVE REIGN!
REMEMBER ZIONISTS ONLY CARE ABOUT ISREAL AND OTHER IDIOTS AND NOT FOR YOU AND THAT IS WHY YOUR ECONOMY IS IN SHAMBLES, STOP FUNDING YOUR OWN DEATH AND THEN THE DEATH OF OTHER NORMAL HUMANS!

NEVER EVER SUPPORT ISRAEL OR THE ZIONISTS AS THAT MEANS DEATH TO THE NORMAL HUMANS AND THE NORMAL HUMANS THE ZIONSISTS CARE NOT FOR.
FREE USA FROM ZIONISTS CLUTCHES AND PLEASE LET HUMANITY LIVE!